The program of the 14th ALFILM Selection presents a wide variety of film productions highlighting the diversity of the current Arab cinematic landscape as well as special screenings, Film Talks, and a program dedicated to the renowned Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri.
The Moroccan film The Damned Don’t Cry by Fyzal Boulifa will open the 14th edition of ALFILM. Nominated for the Queer Lion during the 2022 Venice International Film Festival where it premiered, the film, together among many others within the 14th ALFILM program, brings to the forefront issues pertinent to non-normative sexualities and challenging traditional gender identities. The short film program Renegotiating Gender Scripts will showcase films from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Lebanon which attempt in diverse innovative ways to question the grip of heteronormative notions about gender and sexuality.
The 14th ALFILM Guest of Honour is Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri. Three of his newest works will be screened in his presence: The Blue Caftan by Moroccan director Myriam Touzani, the Lebanese production Beirut Hold’em by Michel Kammoun and Alam by Firas Khoury from Palestine. Saleh Bakri will also give a Master Class dedicated to his extensive career and involvement with Arab and particularly Palestinian Cinema.
The 14th ALFILM Selection also focuses on Palestinian cinema 75 years after the Nakba. Showcasing the aesthetic and formal variety of the current Palestinian film productions, the screenings of Jumana Manna’s intimate documentary Foragers, Firas Khoury’s coming-of-age story Alam, and Maha Haj’s black comedy Mediterranean Fever will all be followed by discussions with the film’s directors. Furthermore, a panel discussion dedicated to this subject will take place in the framework of the ALFILM Atelier.
The documentary section of the 14th ALFILM Selection features strong female voices fighting to bring their stories and those of their communities to the front. Hala Galal’s From Cairo centres on three female protagonists fighting to regain control over their bodies in a conservative and patriarchal Egyptian society. In Fields of Words: Conversations with Samar Yazbek is a dialogue between renowned Syrian writer-in-exile Samar Yazbek and Lebanese filmmaker Rania Stephan. The film explores, through the lens of two remarkable women, the power and limitations of cinema and literature in narrating war, death, and violence.
Two of Lebanon’s most prominent film directors, Ghassan Salhab and Mohamed Soueid, will present their newest films – The River and Insomnia of a Serial Dreamer, respectively – and discuss them with the audience.
Three short films programs complement the 14th ALFILM Selection. Aside from the Renegotiating Gender Scripts program, the Absence / Presence series showcases films from the Western Sahra (Galb’Echaouf by Abdessamad El Montassir), Somalia (Will My Parents Come to See Me by Mo Harawe), Tunisia (Blind Spot by Lotfi Achour), and Egypt (CAI-BER by Ahmed Abdelsalam), highlighting the fine line between past and present, reality and imagination, history and memory. The program called The Power of Suggestion will present three short films experimenting with sound design.
Films of the 14th ALFILM SELECTION
